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Christopher and Columbus by Countess Elizabeth Von Arnim

C >> Countess Elizabeth Von Arnim >> Christopher and Columbus




But he hardly knew what he was saying, so great was his concern and
distress.

Anna-Rose went blindly. She stumbled along, helped by him, clutching the
cat. She couldn't see out of her swollen eyes. Her foot caught in a
root, and the cat, who had for some minutes past been thoroughly uneasy,
became panic-stricken and struggled out of her arms, and fled into the
wood. She tried to stop it, but it would go. For some reason this broke
down her self-control. The warm cat clutched to her breast had at least
been something living to hold on to. Now the very cat had gone. Her
pride collapsed, and she tumbled against Mr. Twist's arm and just
sobbed.

If ever a man felt like a mother it was Mr. Twist at that moment. He
promptly sat her down on the grass. "There now--there, there now," he
said, whipping out his handkerchief and anxiously mopping up her face.
"This is what I did on the _St. Luke_--do you remember?--there now--that
time you told me about your mother--it looks like being my permanent
job--there, there now--don't now--you'll have no little eyes left soon
if you go on like this--"

"Oh but--oh but--Co-Columbus--"

"Yes, yes I know all about Columbus. Don't you worry about her. She's
all right. She's all right in the office at this moment, and we're all
right out here if only you knew it, if only you wouldn't cry such
quantities. It beats me where it all comes from, and you so
little--there, there now--"

"Oh but--oh but Columbus--"

"Yes, yes, I know--you're worrying yourself sick because you think
you're responsible for her to your aunt and uncle, but you won't be, you
know, once she's married--there, there now--"

"Oh but--oh but--"

"Now don't--now please--yes, yes, I know--he's a stranger, and you
haven't seen him yet, but everybody was a stranger once," said Mr.
Twist, quoting Anna-Felicitas's own argument, the one that had
especially irritated him half-an-hour before, "and he's real good--I'm
sure of it. And you'll be sure too the minute you see him. That's to
say, if you're able to see anything or anybody for the next week out of
your unfortunate stuck-together little eyes."

"Oh but--oh but--you don't--you haven't--"

"Yes, yes, I have. Now turn your face so that I can wipe the other side
properly. There now, I caught an enormous tear. I got him just in time
before he trickled into your ear. Lord, how sore your poor little eyes
are. Don't it even cheer you to think you're going to be a
sister-in-law, Anna-Rose?"

"Oh but you don't--you haven't--" she sobbed, her face not a whit less
agonized for all his reassurances.

"Well, I know I wish I were going to be a brother-in-law," said Mr.
Twist, worried by his inability to reassure, as he tenderly and
carefully dabbed about the corners of her eyes and her soaked eyelashes.
"My, shouldn't I think well of myself."

Then his hand shook.

"I wish I were going to be Anna-Felicitas's brother-in-law," he said,
suddenly impelled, perhaps by this failure to get rid of the misery in
her face, to hurl himself on his fate. "Not _yours_--get your mind quite
clear about that,--but Anna-Felicitas's." And his hand shook so much
that he had to leave off drying. For this was a proposal. If only
Anna-Rose would see it, this was a proposal.

Anna-Rose, however, saw nothing. Even in normal times she
wasn't good at relationships, and had never yet understood the
that-man's-father-was-my-father's-son one; now she simply didn't
hear. She was sitting with her hands limply in her lap, and sobbing
in a curious sort of anguish.

He couldn't help being struck by it. There was more in this than he had
grasped. Again he forgot himself and his proposal. Again he was
overwhelmed by the sole desire to help and comfort.

He put his hand on the two hands lying with such an air of being
forgotten on her lap. "What is it?" he asked gently. "Little dear one,
tell me. It's clear I'm not dead on to it yet."

"Oh--Columbus--"

She seemed to writhe in her misery.

"Well yes, yes Columbus. We know all about that."

Anna-Rose turned her quivering face to him. "Oh, you haven't seen--you
don't see--it's only me that's seen--"

"Seen what? What haven't I seen? Ah, don't cry--don't cry like that--"

"Oh, I've lost her--lost her--"

"Lost her? Because she's marrying?"

"Lost her--lost her--" sobbed Anna-Rose.

"Come now," remonstrated Mr. Twist. "Come now. That's just flat contrary
to the facts. You've lost nothing, and you've gained a brother."

"Oh,--lost her--lost her," sobbed Anna-Rose.

"Come, come now," said Mr. Twist helplessly.

"Oh," she sobbed, looking at him out of her piteous eyes, "has nobody
thought of it but me? Columbus hasn't. I--I know she hasn't from
what--from what--she said. She's too--too happy to think. But--haven't
you thought--haven't you seen--that she'll be English now--really
English--and go away from me to England with him--and I--I can't go to
England--because I'm still--I'm still--an alien enemy--and so I've lost
her--lost her--lost my own twin--"

And Anna-Rose dropped her head on to her knees and sobbed in an
abandonment of agony.

Mr. Twist sat without saying or doing anything at all. He hadn't thought
of this; nor, he was sure, had Anna-Felicitas. And it was true. Now he
understood Anna-Rose's face and the despair of it. He sat looking at
her, overwhelmed by the realization of her misfortune. For a moment he
was blinded by it, and didn't see what it would mean for him. Then he
did see. He almost leaped, so sudden was the vision, and so luminous.

"Anna-Rose," he said, his voice trembling, "I want to put my arm round
you. That's because I love you. And if you'll let me do that I could
tell you of a way there is out of this for you. But I can't tell you so
well unless--unless you let me put my arm round you first...."

He waited trembling. She only sobbed. He couldn't even be sure she was
listening. So he put his arm round her to try. At least she didn't
resist. So he drew her closer. She didn't resist that either. He
couldn't even be sure she knew about it. So he put his other arm round
her too, and though he couldn't be sure, he thought--he hardly dared
think, but it did seem as if--she nestled.

Happiness, such as in his lonely, loveless life he had never imagined,
flooded Mr. Twist. He looked down at her face, which was now so close to
his, and saw that her eyes were shut. Great sobs went on shaking her
little body, and her tears, now that he wasn't wiping them, were rolling
down her cheeks unchecked.

He held her closer to him, close to his heart where she belonged, and
again he had that sensation, that wonderful sensation, of nestling.

"Little Blessed, the way out is so simple," he whispered. "Little
Blessed, don't you see?"

But whether Anna-Rose saw seemed very doubtful. There was only that
feeling, as to which he was no doubt mistaken, of nestling to go on. Her
eyes, anyhow, remained shut, and her body continued to heave with sobs.

He bent his head lower. His voice shook. "It's so, so simple," he
whispered. "All you've got to do is to marry me."

And as she made an odd little movement in his arms he held her tighter
and began to talk very fast.

"No, no," he said, "don't answer anything yet. Just listen. Just let me
tell you first. I want to tell you to start with how terribly I love
you. But that doesn't mean you've got to love me--you needn't if you
don't want to--if you can't--if you'd rather not I'm eighteen years
older than you, and I know what I'm like to look at--no, don't say
anything yet--just listen quiet first--but if you married me you'd be an
American right away, don't you see? Just as Anna-Felicitas is going to
be English. And I always intended going back to England as soon as may
be, and if you married me what is to prevent your coming too? Coming to
England? With Anna-Felicitas and her husband. Anna-Rose--little
Blessed--think of it--all of us together. There won't be any aliens in
that quartette, I guess, and the day you marry me you'll be done with
being German for good and all. And don't you get supposing it matters
about your not loving me, because, you see, I love you so much, I adore
you so terribly, that anyhow there'll be more than enough love to go
round, and you needn't ever worry about contributing any if you don't
feel like it--"

Mr. Twist broke off abruptly. "What say?" he said, for Anna-Rose was
making definite efforts to speak. She was also making definite and
unmistakable movements, and this time there could be no doubt about it;
she was coming closer.

"What say?" said Mr. Twist breathlessly, bending his head.

"But I do," whispered Anna-Rose.

"Do what?" said Mr. Twist, again breathlessly.

She turned her face up to his. On it was the same look he had lately
seen on Anna-Felicitas's, shining through in spite of the disfiguration
of her tears.

"But--_of course_ I do," whispered Anna-Rose, an extraordinary smile,
an awe-struck sort of smile, coming into her face at the greatness of
her happiness, at the wonder of it.

"What? Do what?" said Mr. Twist, still more breathlessly.

"I--always did," whispered Anna-Rose.

"_What_ did you always did?" gasped Mr. Twist, hardly able to believe
it, and yet--and yet--there on her little face, on her little
transfigured face, shone the same look.

"Oh--_love_ you," sighed Anna-Rose, nestling as close as she could get.

* * * * *

It was Mr. Twist himself who got on a ladder at five minutes past four
that afternoon and pasted a strip of white paper obliquely across the
sign of The Open Arms with the word.

SHUT

on it in big letters. Li Koo held the foot of the ladder. Mr. Twist had
only remembered the imminence of four o'clock and the German inrush a
few minutes before the hour, because of his being so happy; and when he
did he flew to charcoal and paper. He got the strip on only just in
time. A car drove up as he came down the ladder.

"What?" exclaimed the principal male occupant of the car, pointing,
thwarted and astonished, to the sign.

"Shut," said Mr. Twist.

"Shut?"

"Shut."

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